Community Engagement Scholars Program:

Integrative Community Engagement Project (ICEP)

Allan Kerandi

Graduating: May 2013Major: BiochemistryMinor: Leadership

Allan's Project: Allan is working on a Mobile app for navigation inside the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC.) HCMC is a huge hospital composed of 4 buildings that are hard to navigate for patients, visitors, and guests. Successfully completing this project will aid in getting people to different places in the hospital more smoothly. This project will also allow for nurses and doctors to spend more time with patients instead of guiding visitors and guests, increasing the quality of care at HCMC.

Motivation for Project: Allan's ICEP is not related to his major but to a personal hobby. He loves technology and all its different applications. Being lost himself a number of times as a volunteer showed Allan how valuable such a project would be to the entire hospital.

Rewards and Challenges: The most rewarding part of the project has been meeting the different people to further the project from different areas of the hospital. Some of the challenges Allan has faced include receiving authorization from different groups, having reliable communication, and staying on an effective timeline.

Student Development Outcomes: The most prominent Student Development Outcome that showed up in Allan's project was the Appreciation of Differences which he experienced by attending RAP sessions, volunteering in different areas, and interacting with the different scholars in the program. Tolerance of ambiguity was another area as he worked on his ICEP whereby he had to come up with the framework for moving the project along. Finally, Allan gained a great deal of self-awareness through the reflections that he wrote, discussions with other individuals, and volunteering in the community.

Words of Wisdom: "Pursue a project you are passionate about, it makes the whole process that much more enjoyable. Set up a consistent meeting time with your ICEP contact even when if it's just to catch up, it makes meeting deadlines easier."